Chapter 1


Dust to Dust


Team RWBY watched the world below them.

Their view from the cliffs was remarkable. Beacon sat on the edge of a hundred meter ridge, giving it an expansive prospect onto the City of Vale. The image below them was drawn from an artist's vision and painted onto cotton duck, creating a stunning painting.

What lay below them was easily described as breathtaking and striking, yet Team RWBY wanted nothing more than to grab the magnificent painting and tear it to shreds and in the case of Yang, set it on fire, under their feet.

The artist's vision was not their vision. This was not the way they envisioned their home. Their Vale was not the artist's Vale.

Their Vale wasn't burning.

Their Vale wasn't dying.

Flames of yellow, red and orange ravaged the city. Tongues of destruction licked their way from their origins, carving a path towards parts of the city state yet untouched. The crackle of fire rang true, hailing the continued destruction of a once robust city. Billowing smoke hung heavy in the air as it coalesced into clouds black as coal.

The destruction was only marred by the fading god rays of twilight. Swathes of indigo and violet pierced through the smoke creating a symphony of eden and death. Harsh red and oranges harmonized with the tongues of hell, lending credence to their power.

Up above the light show, in the canopy created by the clouds, twisted beings of unmatched power. Beings coloured in skin of black and grey, and armor of white bone. Beings covered in the armor of human misunderstanding and born from human fear. These beings were unaffectionately called Primordials, given the name as the predecessors of all Grimm.

No other beings could claim to inspire the fear and despair the Primordials could. Controlled and created by Salem, their purpose was simple.

To lay ruin to humanity.

Grimm were created by fear and by fear they remained sustained for thousands of years.

Nothing inspired fear in the populace as much as beings nearing three kilometers in length with a wingspan doubling it. Claws the size of fully grown Nevermores raked across the skies and gouged into the terrain below. Armor plated bodies beguiled their agility. Nothing the Hunters did left even a dent in the armor of one.

Above the skies coiled two such beasts.

Team RWBY did nothing but stare as these beasts rained fire upon their city. Unshed tears glistened in their eyes. Their vigil only interrupted by cries of pain and sorrow as the city's inhabitants struggled to escape the dying city.

The cries weren't the worse part.

The following silence was.

Hundreds of voices snuffed out by a single breath of untamed fury. The silence was deafening to those who could still listen to it.

Team RWBY stood, watched and listened to it all. It was their penance for their greatest failure. The glow of their city illuminated their faces in brilliant shades of orange. The scent of agony drifted to their noses. The heat washed over their skin. The silence beat against their ears.

The artist's vision burnt into eternity.

Team RWBY were the only ones left to witness their city burn and be punished for it. The remainder of the Hunters embraced death as they died in service to their people and their High Commander.

Team JNPR, Team CFVY and Team CRDL: killed in the final assault on the Primordials. Their sacrifice bought enough time for their High Commander and Team RWBY to escape.

Their sacrifice was all for naught. They should have died with them.

One team could not succeed where all of the Hunters failed. The High Commander could not succeed where several hundred Hunters failed.

"High Commander." Rose intoned softly. "What a title for me to hold." Her voice carried lightly across to the rest of her team, standing idly behind her.

"It's wasn't your fault Rubes." Yang responded in a caring whisper. "Nothing could have prepared us for this." Her violet eyes pierced the growing darkness and landed upon blood red locks dancing in the wind.

"It was my job, my responsibility to protect Vale." Her voice droned on listlessly. "I failed."

It was in the title and role of High Commander to protect those under her command, namely the Hunters and those protected by them, the people of Vale. An emblem of Remnant's shattered moon of her upper left arm, reflecting the silver light of the original, denoted her rank.

"No." Weiss' voice deftly cut off Yang's response. "We all failed. The burden doesn't rest solely on you Ruby. It rests on all of us." The eloquent voice of their tactician drifted across the smoke. Her white hair, usually pristine as the fallen snow, was sullied with soot.

Ruby turned from the vision of her failure and met the eyes of her team, looking each one in the eyes for several seconds. Soft silver drilled into glittering amethyst filled with a combination of tears and acceptance of their combined failure.

Ruby's eyes drifted to her former partner nestled in her sister's arms. White hair rested in the hollow of Yang's shoulder, her eyes closed as she enjoyed the ever present warmth of her wife. Ice blue peeked out from a white cascade as she met her leader's gaze. A small, sorrowful smile graced her features as she snuggled back into Yang's warmth.

The crackle of flame was interrupted by the sound of buildings collapsing as Vale relinquished its frail hold on a vast neighborhood of condominiums. The rumble lasted for a dozen seconds before the soft thrum of fire and beating wings once again prevailed.

Ruby's eyes strayed to the last member on her team. Precious metal met precious metal and could do nothing but reciprocate the look of despondence and hardened resolve. Two eyes of polished amber stared back into an eye of pure starlight and an eye of bleak midnight.

Stepping forward, Blake's hand rose to caress Ruby's cheek, before gently running her thumb underneath her right eye. Ruby's eyes involuntarily shut at the touch of soft skin on her face. Blake's hand stayed glued to her cheek as she repeatedly ran her thumb over Ruby's shut eye.

The eye was still there. It reflected the twilight and fire offered by the city below, but it would never again be blessed with the ability to see. Solid black iris and sclera forever stared into an endless void.

"It was but a small price to pay to see you alive." A tiny smile tugged at Ruby's lips. Her eye twinkled in the moonlight. "To see all of you alive. Yet I would do it all over again and even lose my other eye if it meant the survival of the rest of our forces." Her remaining eye regained its blank look as she gazed down onto her city. Gleaming silver moved apathetically, from ruin, to flame, to the behemoths soaring above, trapped in an endless loop.

Blake wrapped her arms around her wife's neck and held her as she began to cry at the loss of her flower's eye. Crystal tears drew troughs down olive skin as her hands desperately sought strands of crimson.

"That was the cost I paid in destroying one of the Primordials. You and I both know I had no choice." Ruby's voice sounded out monotonically from her head's perch on Blake's shoulder. Her arms, resting lightly on Blake's waist, squeezed in warm reassurance.

The slowly disintegrating body of a Primordial lay strewn across the outer edges of the city.

It wasn't the only cost the High Commander had paid during the war.

At the sound of Ruby's hollow voice, Blake only collapsed further into choked sobs, finally given the opportunity to let her sorrow out. Her flower would never be the same. She had suffered tremendously at the hands of the Queen and her dogs of war, the White Fang.

Ruby only tightened her hold around Blake and held her as she released all the pent up anger and grief held within her.

"Let it out. No one's left to judge you anymore." She droned. Her dark humor did not go unnoticed. Yang and Weiss let out chuckles as Blake attempted to do the same through her sobs. Her failure resulting in hysterical hiccups.

"Glad to see you can still joke Ruby." Weiss said as she wrapped her arms around Yang's neck, further burrowing into the hollow of her shoulder. Yang immediately responded in kind and folded her arms around her snowflake's waist, where cool metal and warm flesh met behind the heiress' back and pinned her against her body's warmth.

"I could never steal Yang's job away from her." Ruby replied to one of her sisters. "She's armed with the best of them." Her lone eye briefly lit up in mirth before falling flat.

"Ha Ha Rubes. Arm jokes. Keep 'em coming" Yang mocked Ruby in her own brand of monotone. A dull pain echoed up Yang's spine, a reminder of her second greatest mistake on the battlefield. A petite hand rose up and caressed the meeting point of tungsten carbide and hardened muscle, marveling at the feat of engineering attached to her partner's shoulder.

Yang had lost her arm in the opening salvo of the war.

The Battle of Beacon was what the Hunters called it. A massive display of power and resources by the White Fang up against the headquarters of Vale's Hunters. An array of bullheads and a plethora of Grimm, ranging from the common Beowolf to the elusive Geist.

A battle it was not.

It was a full scale retreat.

Ruby could only slightly grin back at her.

In that one moment, the absolute armageddon brewing behind them was forgotten. One moment of family.

Their little family was perfect, at least to all of them. The fact they were all technically a family by law only compounded it further. Well, whatever law actually existed at the time, and considering the ruling government lay in shambles underneath them, then there wasn't any.

"No point in crying." Ruby intoned as she gazed at her beautiful kitten. "There's nothing to cry over anymore." Ruby only tightened her hold around Blake further before Blake broke the hug and gazed at Weiss pointedly.

Weiss knew very well what the gaze meant. Ruby's words to Blake only further added to Blake's look towards Weiss. Weiss only nodded her head from her position on Yang's shoulder. Blake smiled softly before sitting down on the ground, dragging her Rose with her. Weiss and Yang followed suit as Weiss crawled into Yang's lap.

They all stoically watched as Vale burned.

"Blake." Weiss tiredly slurred as the events of the day caught up with her, "The plan's set, the calculations are as perfect as I can get them. All that's left is to make our way into Beacon and we can all finally put this nightmare…behind us." An undignified yawn tore from Weiss' throat before she nuzzled back into her spot as Yang began to run her fingers through her hair.

Blake clicked her tongue in lazy contentment as she moved to rest her head on Ruby's lap, eyes closing as Ruby ran her fingers through midnight hair, gently brushing across feline ears twitching idly in the breeze. Playful fingers gently rubbed and scratched Blake's ears, drawing a raspy purr from within the woman's chest.

A single hand continued to play with Blake's ears, twiddling each between her fingers. A restless second hand drifted to her kitten's cheek, caressing with the back of her hand. A content smile broke across the assassin's face. Blake pressed a soft kiss on the hand's knuckles as they passed in front of her lips.

The hand continued to travel down, towards a place marked by pain for the both of them. A thin red scar met the traveling hand, causing it to stop. Two fingers walked along the clean laceration, marking the divide between head and neck. A shuddered breath escaped from parted lips as the caress of her lover traced out hard memories.

Slitted eyes pried apart to stare at the superfluity of hydrogen burning millions of lightyears away from their planet. Pupils shrunk in response to resounding roars as the duo of Primordials descended on the city from their lofty perch above. Armored bodies crashed through buildings, taking them down into the deep trenches further carved by their flight. Wings of pure darkness buffeted the nearby countryside trees, sending the heaviest flying and the weak bending. Columns of hellfire smelt metal and torched any remaining plant life.

Team RWBY, sans their fearless leader, flinched as another reverberating shriek marked their ascent back into the skies. Silver followed their return to their loft, before returning to its rightful spot gazing upon her kitten's face. Her thumb traced along Blake's hairline while her fingers disappeared into raven tresses.

A gentle nudge pulled Ruby's eye away from the carnage unfolding in front of her. A croak emanating from torn vocal cords brought Ruby's attention back to the injury. Fingers danced lightly across the scarred flesh, avoiding putting pressure on the healed wound. She had barely survived the injury to begin with. There was no point in tempting fate.

"I'm sorry." A whisper rumbled out from ragged lips. "I'm sorry I can tell you I love you, but you can't do the same for me." Blake reached for the hand tangled in strands of black, brought it to her lips and pressed a chaste kiss to the back of worn fingers. A choked hum told Ruby all she needed.

"I know, I know." She murmured in reply. Slitted eyes closed in mutual understanding.

The war had left their marks on each and every member of Team RWBY. The one member who sustained the least amount of fatal injuries sat comfortably nestled in her yellow personal heater.

The only scars on her body were displayed proudly across her face. A smaller, thinner, and cleaner scar received from a dance with a giant suit of armour possessed by a Geist bridged over her left eye. Directly in front of it, innocent white skin melded harshly into faded red and pasty white. The scar, twice in width as its nearby brother, ran vertically from its starting place under her eye, coloured red with pain, and shifted into bone at the edge of her jaw. Scant millimeters of skin separated open air and the inside of her mouth.

"How long has it been Weiss?" Ruby's monotone sailed to the white girl burrowed in her sister's assets.

"How long has it been since what?" Weiss replied without even cracking open her eyes, too wrapped up in the warmth surrounding her to bother.

"Since we last saw our home." The measured reply struck chords of melancholy in the remaining members of Team RWBY.

Their home wasn't the sisters' house on Patch, nor was it Mountain Glenn, salvaged as their base, nor was it Schnee Castle, tucked into mountain and shielded by clouds.

It was Beacon Academy. Even sitting on the edge of it stirred memories. The crumbling silhouette of Beacon's CCTS tower elicited memories best forgotten, of the beginning of the nightmare they walked in.

"It's been over three winters Ruby." Ice blue eyes cracked open, lost within thoughts and memories.

Silence reigned in the small clearing they sat in. Gusts of wind, courtesy of the fiends gliding above, tousled hair and plant life alike.

"Has it really?" Yang's voice quietly broke the distant thrum of wings. "It feels like we've been trapped in this world forever.

"Hey." A pale hand, comfortably curled against ample bosom, rose from its position and ran a finger along Yang's jaw, angling her head down to the girl held within her arms. "Remember that you're trapped in this world with me."

A merry laugh lifted the somber mood.

"Yes, I guess it isn't too bad if I'm stuck here with you." She pressed a quick kiss on her snowflake's forehead. Weiss' face immediately broke out in a grin. Even after a couple of years of their relationship, small signs of genuine affection always made her feel warm inside.

"Of course it isn't. Who else would keep you warm at night?" A smirk began to grow on Weiss' face, waiting for Yang to fall into her trap.

"I think you're mistaking who keep whom warm at night. I certainly don't need you in my bed stealing all of my warmth, Miss Ice Princess." Yang replied haughtily.

"Oh~. You don't want me in your bed?" The jaws of her trap snapped close. "Who else is going to reenact your favorite scenes from Icha Icha?" Yang's face took on the hue of a ripe cherry.

Their relationship had done Weiss good. She crawled out from the shell her father and mother shoved her into and blossomed into a fierce woman. Her passionate love for Yang and her adoptive family greatly made up for her short stature.

"Oh my firefly." Her joyous mirth sang into the heavens. "After all these years, you're still so easy to tease. You, the crowned queen of flirt, who terrorised the male population of Beacon with unrelenting innuendo and teases."

"Yeah~?" Yang having cooled down drastically from Weiss' initial assault responded. "And which one of us wears nothing but a sports bra underneath a bolero, constantly flashing me with her tight, delicious, toned abs all the damn time?

Weiss released a sharp squeal of surprise as Yang's dextrous fingers glided down the sides of her body and attacked her waist, sending pulses of tantalising heat through the palms of her hand. Weiss, having recovered sufficiently from Yang's assault simply smiled, tightened her hold around Yang's neck and buried her face into it, having achieved her plan. Yang could feel her amusement.

A couple of meters away sat the red and black members of the team, smiling serenely at the antics of their sisters. Ruby's hand continued to tangle itself in midnight and dance along feline ears, which wiggled in amusement at the sounds made by the other half of their family.

A crash of stone and metal reminded them of the chaos churning in the background.

"I think this was your plan all along." Yang accused her beautiful wife.

"Which plan? The one where I get more snuggles from you?" An impish smile dared Yang on.

"Yes, but also your Oum damned plan to wear that brilliantly short blazer to constantly tease me."

"Yang." Her voice dropped into a sultry whisper. "If I really wanted to tease you, I'd still be wearing the dress I wore in Beacon, you know, the one that showed off my legs?."

"I know very well you still have several of those dresses tucked away seeing as you haven't grown a single fucking centimeter since we met. Even Ruby's managed to grow even with Blake." Yang teased in return.

It was Weiss' one weakness and Yang would abuse it until the end of time. Four years since the team was created and Weiss hadn't grown at all, remaining permanently stuck in the short zone.

"Hey-!"

Weiss' retort was cut short.

"I like you short. It means you fit nicely under my chin." Her placating voice always drowned out any insecurities Weiss' still held.

"I always did like being the little spoon. Maybe it was for the best." An exasperated sigh escaped from her lips, but the bright glint in her eyes told Yang what she needed.

"I know you do snowflake. I've always loved being your big spoon, especially since you cut your mane of hair down to size." She ran her hand up the base of Weiss' neck, splaying her fingers wide as they rooted in white. "Your hair was longer than mine, even when tied up in your bun ponytail combo thing."

"It does make mornings a lot more manageable." She agreed wholeheartedly.

"It also gives you more time to brush my hair." Yang absolutely loved it when Weiss played with her hair. She turned to absolute putty in the princess' hands.

Yang, unlike her wife, had stubbornly refused to cut her hair. Not even a direct order from Ruby had caused the girl to blink. Weiss had stood steadfast by Yang's side, claiming the morning ritual of brushing Yang's hair calmed them both down.

Knowing calm and stress relief was a much needed commodity during war, Ruby agreed to a compromise. Yang would have to cut her hair, but not down to the regulation short the rest of Team RWBY shared. She would have to wear her hair in a permanent ponytail on the field, and the end length of the ponytail had to just touch the tips of her shoulders. It was a compromise which left the couple happy, and let Ruby take a breather, knowing Yang's hair had a lower chance of getting snagged by a passing Griffon or erant White Fang member.

The team already knew the dangers of loose clothing, or in this case, hair.

"You know how much I enjoy brushing your hair in the mornings. Makes me wish I hadn't cut my hair so short in the first place." Weiss began to measure the length of her hair, stretching out the strands until they tickled her chin.

"I just think it makes you look cuter." She pressed a kiss to Weiss' nose, causing it to scrunch up in minute irritation. "Makes you look like a pixie." She amended her statement as Weiss' glared at her with glacial irises. "But you're my pixie."

The added revision dimmed the glare of Weiss' eyes.

"Then by that same logic, both Ruby and Blake are pixies." Weiss teased her commander and her other sister, eying the resting duo from her peripheral.

Ruby shook her head in minor amusement while Blake had no choice but to accept it silently. She instead lifted her head from Ruby's lap and sent them a scowl of pure molten gold, which no mortal man should have escaped unharmed.

"I don't think Blake shares our sentiments." Weiss chuckled as Yang averted her eyes from Blake.

"Then she's a puma. Wild, untamed and fierce with a shimmering mane of dusk."

Out of the corner of her eye, Blake's glare diminished and she returned to having Ruby pet her.

"Didn't think you could be so eloquent." Weiss' teasing sprung back in full effect.

"I guess she likes it. You can even say she cat get enough of it. Do you think she's feline the comparison?" Yang's shit eating grin could have lit up a nest of Grimm.

She would have continued with the puns if Blake hadn't chucked Gambol Shroud at her head resulting in a loud thunk as it impacted her head. How she managed it from her resting position on Ruby, turned away from them, was a secret the assassin would take to her grave.

"You're sleeping on the couch for those puns." Weiss deadpanned.

"We don't even have a couch Weissy." Yang countered. Her hands buried in her hair, massaging the growing bruise from Gambol Shroud's impact.

"If we did, you'd be sleeping there."

"Good luck sleeping without your personal heater then." Yang got the last word in, knowing full well Weiss couldn't sleep without her, outright complaining of freezing bedrooms even though she had grown up in Atlas. Yang simply took it as her excuse to cuddle with her, and never once complained about it.

"Speaking of much needed warmth, I think Rubes might need some." Yang gestured, tilting her head towards the quiet couple sitting in front of them.

In the dark twilight surrounding them, the glowing embers of Vale provided a stunning backdrop to the silhouette of the two partners, one resting against the other and the other watching the enfolding destruction. A single tear, the first in many years, rolled from a silver eye and descended down a porcelain cheek.

"She's freezing out here." Weiss quietly commented. Even in the darkness, the fine hairs and goosebumps along her arms stood prominent against the orange glow. The fires smouldering underneath them did nothing to stave away the chill of an early spring night.

"Come." Yang nudged Weiss to stand from her lap. Weiss turned and with a heavy tug pulled Yang to her feet. Yang took Weiss' hand and proceeded to walk the short distance to her sisters.

"Ruby." Yang placed a hand on her shoulder. Ruby turned her head, gazing at her sister's darkened form. "You're freezing."

"Am I?" A tone tinged with confusion questioned Yang. Yang gestured to Ruby's arms. She raised her hand, leveling it at her eye. Her sister was right. She was cold.

"I didn't even notice." Rose barely whispered against the wind. A blast of wind roared up the sides of the cliff, sending shivers up Ruby's back. Her hands abandoned her duty towards Blake and rubbed her arms, slowly sending warmth to constricted blood vessels.

"Makes you wish you had the cloak, doesn't it." Yang consoled her youngest sister. The topic of her cloak was always a sensitive one.

"No. It doesn't." A hollow voice answered her back. "It makes me much more grateful for the walking fire I have as a sister."

Ruby's cloak was a sore topic even two years after its near destruction. The body of the cloak resembled tassels more so than it resembled a continuous stretch of fabric. Ruby nearly lost her life because of it, and she would never wear it again. The only reason she hadn't tossed the tattered cloth away was because of the sentimental bond it represented with her mother. How her mother managed to fight and live to see Ruby's birth in the deathtrap still amazed her.

"I swear this team abuses my ability to generate heat." Yang sweatdrop before setting herself on fire, sending a blast of hot air radiating around the cliff edge. She didn't even notice the dip in her Aura.

"And we all love you for it." Weiss stated as she bound up Yang's back, forcing the larger girl to grip her thighs to prevent her from sliding off. A sharp grunt was the reward Weiss received for her effort.

"Watch it." Yang glared at the urchin attached to her back, or tried to seeing as she couldn't turn her neck fully towards her.

"Your little fire show can't hurt me." Weiss replied as she tightened her hold around Yang's neck, burying her face in a golden tresses.

"Still. Give me a warning next time." She chastised as the last of her flames licked the air around her.

"Spoilsport." Weiss harrumphed, clearly already scheming another ambush on her lover.

The interaction between the two had the benefit of waking Blake from the limbo of a nap she had slipped into. Unfocused eyes creaked open to reveal black pupils stretched to the limit, leaving nothing but slivers of gold surrounding them.

"Nice cat nap?" The predictable jibe caused Blake and Weiss to roll their eyes. Blake arched her back and flung her arms above her head, working out the small kinks accumulated in her body from said cat nap. A hand returned from its wayward journey and landed on Ruby's cheek, cupping it. Blake lifted herself, angling a peck at Ruby's lips on her way up, before twisting herself to a standing position.

Ruby's lips twitched before she slowly twirling her way up from her sitting position to face her team.

"Time to go Ruby." Yang gently insisted as she turned to walk towards the school, still carrying Weiss on her back.

"No." Ruby turned once more towards her city, feeling a wave of heat blast away any trace of her one solitary tear.

"Ruby." Weiss pressed on. "We're going. You have to let it go eventually. You couldn't do anything." Weiss' voice rose in volume, causing Blake's ears to turn away in annoyance.

"Not yet." Ruby turned from the scene of fire and walked away from it. Upon passing the perched Weiss, her finger rose up, silencing her rebuke. An unwavering silver eye promised pain if Weiss continued to argue on. The pain wouldn't be the kind she enjoyed. Weiss wisely kept quiet.

Cutting through her team, she marched towards the aircraft parked in a clearing. Her team, with Weiss descending from her spot, followed at a sedated pace, wondering what their leader was up to.

A pneumatic hiss signaled the opening of their VTOL's rear hatch. Ruby patiently waited for the ramp to touch the ground before diving into the fuselage. Muttered expletives flew from the craft as she most likely smashed her head on the overhead compartments, or tripped, or continued to fail to find whatever it was she was looking her.

"Found it yet?" Yang's voice broke the line of curses flying through the air. The girl knew a hell of a lot of curses. Ohh. That was a new one.

"Aye. It was hanging on the back of the pilot seat." Ruby strolled out of the craft carrying a bundle of red draped over her arms.

"Huh. I here I thought you were searching for my porn." Yang's sight never left the red fabric as Ruby carried it to the edge of the cliff.

"I found that long ago. It's under the pilot's seat. Not really subtle." Ruby answered deftly.

"Where else am I supposed to hide it?" Yang retorted, quite obviously upset Ruby knew of the hiding spot. "There's nowhere else to hide it on Serenity."

"You haven't found Blake's or my stash yet. Considering collectively it's nearly double yours, then I'm assuming you missed something." Ruby deadpanned back in amusement.

"It's MY ship. How the fuck did I miss your stashes?" Yang nearly yelled, her mind working the memorized schematics of Serenity in her head.

"Not telling." Ruby replied, shutting down the topic. "Now get over her and light this for me." Ruby unfurled her package revealing the tattered remains of her cloak. The gentle breeze ruffled through the holes of the cloak causing it to dance.

"Why?" Yang's puzzled response indicated she missed a large development in Ruby's psyche. "You've carried the damn thing around for so long, even after its destruction. Why now?"

"To remember why we're here in the first place." Ruby's solemn statement sent the clearing tumbling into silence. Even the beasts above granted a brief reprieve to their destruction and noise. "To prevent the mistakes we all made."

Yang's gulp echoed across the silent clearing.

"Yang, I forgave you a long time ago. I forgave you the moment Blake pulled me out and returned me to you" Ruby replied in deadpan.

"How?" Yang's voice trembled and threatened to break. "How can you forgive me for failing you, for failing to do the one fucking job you trusted me with." Her voice took on an edge, the raging inferno of her personality beating her down for her mistake.

"Yang, did you try to save me? Or did you simply let me go?" Ruby prodded her, already knowing the answer to her own question.

"Of course I didn't! How could you-" Yang's response cut short in favor of Ruby.

"Do you know how much it pains me to give that order Yang? The one time I've given the order, I've not only had to deal with a potential widow, but also with my own guilt. I'm was overjoyed when you failed with that order; that you came back."

Ruby was immediately bowled over by her biological sister and nearly squeezed to death.

"That was the most inflection I've heard in your voice in over two years. Maybe I shouldn't follow orders at all." Yang happily chirped, glad her sister forgave her for her biggest fuck up.

"If you were better at following order I could have had a threesome with a grieving widow." Yang couldn't tell if she was joking, so she ignored it.

"Ruby. " Yang sobered up from her happiness. "You could give me the order now and I could go into the city and end all of this." She was intent on carrying out the order to completion this time.

"And do what exactly?" Weiss' growl grated on everyone's ears, flattening Blake's to her hair. "Blow yourself, the city, and half the continent away?"

"It would get rid of the Primordials at least." Yang countered her irate wife. "What is my life in the grand scale of things?"

"Yang! I love you, you dolt! You are MY grand scale of things and you are never leaving me. Got it?" Weiss heatedly glared at Yang. It was hilarious to watch seeing as Weiss was almost a head shorter than her spouse. Yang cowered under the glare, shrinking down to match Weiss in height.

"And here I thought 'dolt' was exclusively used to address me." Ruby remarked in fake sorrow.

"Shut up dolt." No points for guessing the identity of the speaker.

"Besides, killing the flying behemoths wouldn't work." Ruby watched as said tanks dove towards her city, ripping it to pieces. "Your Semblance might be able to get rid of these two, but the problem would remain. The remaining three city states would be unprotected and the Queen would still be alive."

"It's pretty hard killing a god Rubles."

"I'll give it my best shot." A rapturous smirk led the rest of the team to believe their leader was running through several plans in her head, all of which involved painting a room a deep crimson, and then flooding it with the remainder of paint. A haunting chuckle reverberated around them.

"And she's gone." Weiss sighed in exasperation. "That's the first time in nearly four lunar cycles."

"At least it's not a daily occurrence anymore. She's been getting better." Yang chastised her. "She isn't completely insane anymore."

"I'm pretty sure all of her plans involve high levels of controlled maiming."

"As opposed to the regular maiming we regularly perform?" A golden eyebrow raised in question.

"We don't do it expecting our enemies to survive. Hence controlled."

"Point. Well at least she's not doing it to us. She loves all of us, but not more than Blakey over there." Yang crushed Weiss in a hug, leaving the smaller girl making the best of the limited oxygen her lungs could pull in.

Their elusive teammate stood in the darkness, the shadows clinging to her body shrouding her from untrained eyes. Two golden orbs rippled in sorrow as she watched her lover spiral into madness.

Silent footfalls traced the living shadow's approach to her rose. Ironic it would be for a shadow to protect a rose from her own madness. The shadow wrapped around the rose, bringing a semblance of peace to the mind trapped within. It stayed coiled around the rose for several minutes, slowly encouraging the rose to bloom.

The pair of snowflake and firefly watched the scene, knowing only Blake stood even a chance of pulling Rose out from the depths of her shattered mind. Wisps of fire danced along the firefly's fingertips, bringing light to the darkened clearing.

A crazed eye drained back into vacancy, signalling Ruby's recovery from her psychosis.

"Thank you." Ruby's voice cracked in the aftermath. "Thank you for being there for me."

Ruby had accepted the fragile state of her mind. After the incident, the slightest prod had sent her spiralling into hell. It was only after several years, and the constant love and protection offered by her family, she was able to reign in the worst of it. While the frequency of her bouts had decreased, it was unlikely she would ever fully recover.

"Yang, I still need you to burn this." Ruby extended the tattered cloak towards Yang.

"Are you sure? I know what it means to you."

"It's time I let go of the past and look towards the future. What happened in our pasts can't be changed. What can be changed is the world around us."

Yang smiled in agreement, grabbed Weiss' hand and moved to stand beside her sister. A warm hand grasped the cloak and an ember started the release of a shared painful memory.

When the cloak was halfway lit, Yang released it to the wind. It fluttered away from the cliffside, pieces of flaming fabric separating from the main body and spreading out. Team RWBY traced the cloak's fall down to the tranquil waters of Vale's lake.

"Now we can go Weiss." Ruby turned from their greatest failure and began her sedated walk to their aircraft.

Night had quickly enveloped the remaining sky. The only light remaining was lost over the top of the cliff as the city burned away. A shattered moon cut through the void of the sky.

The team maneuvered with practiced ease in the complete darkness. The distance was short and probably could be traversed blind, but they let Blake lead them. What would be the point of having biological night vision on the team if you didn't exploit it. Rocks and roots became mere annoyances as the trailing members copied Blake's silhouette.

Breaking the line of trees and stepping into the clearing revealed Serenity in all her glory. A marvel of Yang's engineering and Weiss' design made Serenity the pride of the Hunter fleet. Now it remained as the only serviceable ship for the Hunters. The remainder of their fleet was scattered around the countryside and within the city, in varying states of destruction, be it melted to slag, torn to smithereens or simply crashed.

Powerful flood lights emanating from the still opened hatch revealed the clearing in varying shades of evergreen.

"Now boarding Yang Airlines from Beacon's cliffs to Beacon's landing platforms. Estimated travel time is approximately one minute." Yang parodied her usual pre-flight greeting as the team stepped into the craft. Ruby palmed the rear hatch button as Yang made her way to the cockpit, before grabbing an overhead strap.

"Last ride on the ship Weiss. Any words?" Ruby asked her. The monotone made the question sound more of a statement than an inquiry of opinion.

"I'll miss this heap of bolts. It served us well." Weiss rubbed her hand along the walls of the ship, taking in the ship Yang and her had built for the last time.

"Watch what you're calling a heap of bolts." Yang called out from the cockpit. "This is the only child you're getting from me."

"I'm sure they'll be more children on the way Yang. We'll just have to create them together." Weiss smiled, concocting more children they could construct together. Maybe a copy of Bumblebee for Ruby and Blake.

As Yang ran through her preflight checklist, Ruby grew tired of watching Blake and moved to her side, pulling her into her. The day had been tiring, and the most energy consuming part lay before them.

"In hindsight, we could have simply walked to the courtyard. It's not that far." Blake slapped Ruby across the chest before running through a series of handsigns.

"I wouldn't want to deprive Yang from being able to pilot Serenity for a last time either. I'll let her have her final moments with her child."

Weiss mouthed a silent thank you to her sister, as she stood up and made her way to Ruby's other side, snuggling in comfortably.

The increasing hum of the rotors marked the ignition sequence of Serenity. A gentle jolt sent her into a hover. It seemed Yang was going to milk all the time she had left with her, not even activating the forward thrusters. No one would blame her. The ship had got them through a hell of a lot of tough times.

Weiss and Blake idly wiggled in Ruby's embrace, looking for an elusive comfortable position.

"How did I end up in the middle here." Ruby's thoughts wandered out of her brain. She tightened her hold on the monochrome duo.

"You're the boss Ruby. You're suppose to take care of us. And if that includes snuggles, then you must supply snuggles." Weiss' muffled voice sounded from Ruby's shoulder.

Blake nuzzled her head into Ruby's other shoulder, begging to be pet.

"You're only using me until Yang stops piloting. I feel hurt." Ruby's hand started to pet Blake's head, running through black locks and ears alike.

"Love you too sis. You could never deny cuddles from me."

"I feel like the older sister, or mother."

"At least you love me Ruby. My mother never did."

A grim silence descended in the fuselage. Team RWBY was the only family Weiss had left. It was the only family they all had left, and they would annihilate anyone who threatened them.

A hand made it's way up Weiss' back, around her body, and cupped her head, pressing her further into the hand's owner.

The trio enjoyed the silence, each member reminiscing the better times they shared together. Ruby's calloused hands threaded through white and black, massaging out troubled memories.

A sudden change in acceleration told them their journey was coming to an end.

"Now arriving at Beacon. Thank you for choosing Yang Airlines. We know you had no choice, but we still appreciate it." A chipper voice rang out from the cockpit.

The soft thunder of rubber on stone resounded in the ruins.

Ruby dragged Weiss and Blake up from their slumber. They stumbled as synchronised drunks, blinking away sleep and waking up numb limbs. Ruby was a comfortable pillow.

A release of air lowered the rear hatch, giving Team RWBY their first view of their home in over three winters.

"It's still as beautiful as I remember it to be." Weiss voiced everyone's thoughts.

"Grab your essentials. Leave everything else alone. Your porn is not essential Weiss." Ruby cut off Weiss' immediate question. The girl pouted. "Grab your packs. That's it. We're not going to risk overloading Weiss' glyph.

Each member quickly grabbed their respective packs and slung them over their shoulders.

"That's it then. Lock her up Yang." Ruby walked down the ramp of Serenity. It would be the last time she saw her. Weiss and Blake followed her. They made it mere meters before the distinct lack of a fourth set of feet on pavement caused them to stop and turn towards their lagging teammate.

She stood on the top of the ramp, pack at her feet, unwilling to step forward off of the airship she painstakingly created, constantly repaired, and doted upon. She wasn't willing to give up her only child.

"Go to her." Ruby's barely audible whisper reached Weiss's ears. "She needs you." Weiss quickly broke from their group and nearly sprinted towards the ship before leaping into Yang's arms just shy of the ramp, taking the blonde by surprise.

"Wha-?" The sudden impact of a white blur sent them both rolling back into the ship. "What have I told you about jumping on me?" Yang exasperatedly whined after realizing who could have possibly tackled her.

"To not do it again." A cheeky smirk broke across Weiss' face. "I simply chose to ignore you. It's much more fun to jump you."

"What am I going to do with you?" The silence was her answer. "What am I going to do without my ship?"

"You'll move on. I already promised we'd create another one."

"I know." A trembling sigh passed between parted lips. "But she's our first."

"Then we'll just have to recreate her just as magnificently as we created her the first time."

A gleaming smile cracked across the blonde's face. "I'll hold you to that promise."

"Now, get up before Ruby gets angry at us."

"She's emotionally incapable of getting angry."

"Maybe I can't but I can fake it well enough." Ruby's droll tumbled in from outside.

"Love you Ruby!" Their combined voices sailed out of the ship.

"Now get off of me before Ruby decides to show us some of that anger." Yang bucked her hips and wiggled underneath her little hellion.

"I didn't think I'd see the day you wanted me to get off of you." A suggestive wiggle of her hips answered Yang's own. A more pronounced buck told Weiss she was serious. "Fine, be a spoilsport."

Weiss got off of Yang with a deep frown etched on her face, before reaching down and heaving Yang to her feet.

"We have to go. Say your goodbye firefly." Yang ran her hand along the seal of the rear hatch, reminiscing their shared good times.

"Goodbye Serenity." A pent up sigh left her lips, coming to terms with having to leave her child behind.

Stepping off of Serenity's ramp with Weiss next to her, she turned, bent down and pressed the exterior close button on the side of the ramp. The ship's ramp closed slowly, almost reluctant to leave its team behind. A final thud locked Serenity forever.

Seeing the pair make their peace, Ruby and Blake turned and began the short stroll, with Yang and Weiss following, to the courtyard. The landing platforms weren't too far from the school after all. Heavy packs weighed down each member of the team. Necessities such as extra clothes, ammunition, dust cartridges, and data chips filled every crevice of the packs.

Cracked pavement, bent lampposts and shattered archways littered the landscape around them. Beacon never recovered after the White Fang's immense assault on it. The once proud and exalted school for Hunters lay desolate and in ruins.

Marks of fallen Grimm stained the ground black. The monstrous carnage of a battle past was evident. Meters of unblemished ground didn't exist around the school. The bodies of Atlesian Knights rested on top of one another, nothing but fodder in a war of humans and Grimm. Dismembered Paladins spread across the landscape.

Husks of wrecked bullheads and airships lay strewn from the cliffs to the inner halls. An Atlesian Command Airship rested upside down on the southern bank, relatively intact save for the crater of the hole punched through its bridge. Ruby's handiwork.

Images of the battle flashed through Team RWBY's minds. Images of blood, metal and Grimm melded seamlessly into a gruesome movie they hoped they never had to watch again. The deaths of their comrades were brought fresh to their minds. Yet this battle paled in comparison to the assault Salem had tossed on them hours previous.

Entering the courtyard, their eyes were immediately drawn to the broken statue at the center. The statue once stood for the strength and constant presence of the Hunters in the Kingdom of Vale.

Apt.

The Battle of Beacon started their downfall.

Battle by battle, team by team, the Hunters were picked off. No longer able to fight without casualties.

While Vale created the best Hunters on Remnant, it was Atlas which boasted the largest military. Atlas acted as Remnant's military force. The other three city states used Atlas's Knights to patrol their borders. It saved the city state's Hunter's from having to perform patrols, allowing them to be used for more practical purposes.

Atlas's military was their downfall.

Cinder's virus had been their downfall. Quality usually trumped quantity, but not when the odds were skewed vastly against their favor. Ten to one, easy. Hundred to one, harder. Thousand to one, good luck.

By the time the droids could be destroyed, public opinion was so skewed against Atlas, Vale was forced to declare war for the slight. Three bitter years of conflict until all hell broke loose.

The Primordials came through from Salem's pocket dimension.

Vale fell.

The rest of Remnant would follow.

"Let's get this over with." Ruby broke the eerie silence draped upon them. "You ready to do this Weiss?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Her voice rang true, projecting her confidence to the rest of the team.

"Yang?"

"Good to go." She pounded her fists together, sending sparks flying.

"Blake?"

A sublime smile and a nod was her answer.

A colossal glyph began to grow out for Weiss' feet, encompassing them and the entirety of the courtyard. The usual snowflake was replaced by a more intricate cousin. A six point fractal spread the radius of the glyph and recursed into infinitely smaller versions of itself; becoming infinitely stronger with each completed fractal.

Immediately upon the completion of the glyph, Ruby began to channel her Semblance into Yang, who also began to channel her Semblance, taking Ruby's aura and the natural aura around her before passing both into the glyph underneath them.

The glyph began to increasingly glow as it continually received aura from the aura manipulator.

Beads of sweat coalesced along Yang's forehead as the toll of manipulating and funneling massive amounts of aura mounted. Weiss' eyes snapped shut in concentration as she further spiraled the fractal to oblivion, further stabilising the glyph. While her glyphs possessed inherent stability from the nature of fractals, she had to continually concentrate on its infinite construction, and the amount of aura being channeled.

Her standard glyphs relied on simpler fractals and less aura, letting her more easily create and manipulate them.

The nature of this particular glyph relied on a vast amount of aura. Ignoring the laws of spacetime wasn't a simple task.

Ruby stood steadfast, channeling aura into her sister as if it was nothing but a menial task for her. Channeling her Semblance became easier once at its terminal velocity. It was the acceleration which taxed her reserves the most.

Blake on the other hand, looked on in rapt boredom, idly tapping her fingers on her tricep. She didn't have a job in all this, and didn't feel slighted. No work suited her just fine. Lazy cat.

A sharp intake of air from Weiss signaled the glyph had reached the desired aura intake.

Steeling herself, Weiss released the glyph's hold on their plane.

In a flash and sharp crack of sonoluminescence, Team RWBY disappeared from reality.

Disappeared back to day their nightmare started.

Back to the Battle of Beacon.


Author's Note: This will most likely be the only author's note for this fanfiction. Every single chapter I write is poured over the course of several weeks and are usually free of plot holes. Your only warning is this: Look underneath the underneath.

Regards: Bloodrose

Edit: Sept. 27th 2017: Minor grammatical fixes, fixed a plot hole, changes a few lines and word, omitted some others.